As our society becomes increasingly health conscious, more and more people are taking to outdoor exercise. The availability of visible light is crucial to the safety of those who travel by foot (i.e., walking, jogging or running), by unmotorized transport (i.e., bicycle, scooter, skateboard, roller skates), or by small motorized craft (i.e., Vespa, motor scooter, motorcycle). When visible light is reduced, such as at dawn or dusk, during evening hours, or under overcast skies, unarmored pedestrians and others are rendered virtually invisible and are thus particularly vulnerable to the dangers presented by motor vehicles. For those who, use portable music devices such as MP3 player, or other individuals who wish or need to exercise, recreate or travel outdoors under conditions of reduced visibility, there is a critical need for a safety device that is effective, affordable, and sufficiently convenient and appealing so as to be conducive to broad compliance.
A related need involves parents in rural areas who can easily lose sight of their small children who may be playing in a field at night or among tall grass or foliage. A parent trying to locate a missing child who, for any reason, is not responding to audible calls), must rely on the reflection of visible light in order to identify that child. Under conditions of reduced visibility, such as preceding or during a storm or at night, such a parent would need to be able to visibly identify his or her child with a small amount of light, such as a flashlight at a distance or from diminishing sunlight, moonlight, or starlight.
This problem has traditionally been addressed by the now routine use of hard reflective material. While reflective devices are routinely attached to bicycles and some skateboards, these are only effective while such riders are riding or walking their bicycles, leaving a large safety gap whenever the rider is not adjacent to or upon his or her bicycle. Previous attempts to fill this gap or to augment the safety provided by traditional reflectors have included the affixation of reflective materials to certain types of clothing as well as the manufacture of apparel that incorporates fluorescent material into the fabric itself. While these have had some success where compliance is mandatory (i.e., highway construction workers), neither has proved to be an effective solution for consumers, as a tragic number of unprotected, effectively invisible children and adults are fatally struck by oncoming traffic each year.
An ideal solution (i.e., one that could save lives) would be one in which compliance is high—even among teenagers. In order to achieve such compliance, the solution would have to be applicable in a manner that preserves an open choice of personal clothing, thus it must be conveniently affixable to fabric, not embedded during the manufacture of the clothing. It would also need to have secondary appeal to the wearer, perhaps as an accessory or stylish emblem. Firstly, though, to be effective, any solution would have to be highly visible, even in instances of severely reduced light.
Known in the art are reflective tapes which utilize microspheres, including microscopic glass beads to provide reflectivity. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,494 to Belisle, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,479 to Ochi et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,886,949 to Tanaka. However, these types of reflective tapes are often very inflexible, and hence are inadequate for use on objects which are irregular in shape, or objects that move, such as a garment, for example. Moreover, reflective tapes which utilize microscopic glass beads to provide reflectivity often degrade when washed with water. Because garments are typically washed using water via a washing machine, for example, reflective tapes which utilize microscopic glass beads to provide reflectivity cannot be effectively applied to garments. Further, because garments are inherently irregular in shape and are subject to move when the individual wearing the garment moves, reflective tapes which utilize microscopic glass beads to provide reflectivity cannot be effectively applied to garments, for these additional reasons.
One type of reflective tape known in the art are prismatic tapes, such as marine tape, for example. Two types of prismatic tapes known in the art are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,173 to Martin, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,011 to Martin, et al., which are both incorporated herein by reference. Prismatic tapes are typically much brighter than other types of reflective tapes. Prismatic tapes have a reflective layer which is shiny and is typically metallic in appearance. The key feature of prismatic tapes, however, is the prismatic pattern of the tape, which typically resembles machined metal. In some prismatic tapes, the prismatic pattern is hexagonal, such that light reflects from the reflective layer and then refracts from the prismatic pattern, which allows the reflective layer to reflect light which is the same color as the reflective layer of the prismatic tape. Moreover, the prismatic pattern allows for the incident light reflected from the prismatic tape to be refracted at many different angles, creating a plurality of optical effects, as recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art.
The prismatic patterns incorporated into the reflective layer of prismatic patches allows the light reflected by the reflective layer to be visible at much sharper angles than permitted by conventional reflective tapes. Indeed, conventional reflective tapes typically require that incident light hit the reflective layer of the tape at an angle between 70 and 110 degrees in order for the light reflected by the reflective layer of the reflective tape to be reflected. Prismatic tapes, on the other hand, will reflect the incident light from the reflective layer of the tape regardless of the angle incident light hits the reflective layer of the tape. Although a variety of prismatic tapes are known in the art, they do not have images on or over the reflective layer such that when incident light is reflected from the reflective layer of the tape, image, which is not reflected, is visible through the light reflected from the reflective layer.
Likewise, other reflective tapes known in the art, which are not prismatic tapes, reflect only the color of the reflective layer of the tape, and do not have images on or over the reflective layer such that when incident light is reflected from the reflective layer of the tape, image, which is not reflected, is visible through the light reflected from the reflective layer. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,311 to Ito, et al. Furthermore, although there are currently commercially available reflective tapes which have images printed thereon, the images printed reflect when incident light hits the reflective tape such that incident light will refract from the reflective layer of the reflective tape to magnify and distort the image printed on the reflective layer of a reflective tape. In other words, the image printed on the reflective layer of the reflective material will not appear as it is printed on the reflective layer of the reflective material.
Heretofore unknown is a patch containing a reflective material which reflects incident light and refracts that light at different angles having an image on or over the reflected material, such that the image, which is not reflective, is visible through the reflected light, and will appear as it does on the reflected material. It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide an image reflecting adhesive patch containing a reflective material which reflects incident light and refracts that light at different angles having an image on or over the reflected material, such that the image, which is not reflective, is visible through the reflected light, and will appear as it does on the reflected material, without any distortion, making the pedestrian more visible on roads.
Other objects of the instant invention will be observable through a complete study of the specification, drawings and claims herein. Objects of the instant invention are provided as examples and are not intended to be limitive of the scope of the protection herein.